Showing posts with label adaptation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adaptation. Show all posts
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| Robert Hooks and Lynn Redgrave |
"Go home with you? -- but I don't even know you." -- Myrtle
Myrtle Kane (Lynn Redgrave), who once belonged to a group called the "Mobile Hot Shots," gets a stranger, Jeb Thornton (James Coburn), to pretend he's engaged to her so they can win some prizes on a local game show. Unfortunately, the host also wants to marry them on the program. Jeb takes Myrtle back to his dilapidated plantation, Waverly, where he lives with his black half-brother, "Chicken" (Robert Hooks). The dying Jeb agreed that Chicken would have the plantation after his death if he helped him work it, and signed a paper to that effect, but now he sends Myrtle out to get back the paper by any means possible. But Chicken knows something that may make all of Jeb's manipulations unnecessary. Loosely based on Tennessee Williams' play "The Seven Descents of Myrtle," it's a wonder why anyone thought Mobile Hot Shots would make a good movie. Everyone is miscast, and Lumet is certainly the wrong director. The movie can't seem to make up its mind if it's a comedy or not -- there are a couple of chuckles, but that's it, and the final revelation is a pip -- but its biggest failing is that with all that's going on it's still a bore [even a climactic flood doesn't help much]. Redgrave seems to be channeling Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth (although her character is completely different), but she makes one of the the least convincing Williams' heroines ever. Coburn makes some effort but gets nowhere, and Hooks comes off best, but in this movie that's not saying much. Still it's hard to play Williams just right, and mediocre Williams is even harder. Gore Vidal's screenplay at one point seems to hint at homosexual incest, but as it comes out of nowhere and is unconvincing anyway, it was probably just to set up a quick, dumb gag late in the movie. The premise of the picture is intriguing but the development is just dismal. With Hooks playing a character who denies his being black, one would have to say Hot Shots is horribly dated as well. [If one wonders why anyone would want to own a property like Waverly in the first place, all I can say is real estate!]
Verdict: This should just be washed away with the flood. *1/2.
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| Everett Sloane talks to Jack Palance |
THE BIG KNIFE (1955). Producer/director: Robert Aldrich. Screenplay by James Poe from the play by Clifford Odets.
Movie star Charles Castle (Jack Palance) was involved in a hit and run that killed a child, but his p.r. man, Buddy (Paul Langton), took the rap for him. Charles' wife, Marion (Ida Lupino), who is separated from him, swears she'll divorce him if he re-signs with Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger), who probably helped engineer the deception. Now there's a new complication: Castle had a woman with him in the car that night, Dixie Evans (Shelly Winters), and she's drunkenly shooting her mouth off everywhere she goes. Now Hoff and his associate Smiley (Wendell Corey), want to take care of Dixie -- permanently ... The Big Knife might have worked on the stage, and the Odets original was undoubtedly better than this half-baked adaptation, but the film sinks almost from the get-go. The chief problem is the epic miscasting of Jack Palance. Charlie might have evoked some sympathy in the viewer if he was played by a man who could get across his essential weakness and confusion, but Palance seems incapable of ever displaying the slightest trace of vulnerability. It gives the actor his presence and strength, but he's just all wrong for this picture. His scenes with Ida Lupino are stagey and over-rehearsed and just don't work at all -- both of them are busy "acting" instead of being. We're constantly being told of how wonderful Castle is and of his supposed integrity, but all we see is a corrupt, self-absorbed individual who allowed another man to take responsibility for his actions, slept with the man's wife, and acts like a dickhead throughout. When he protests at the idea of "silencing" Dixie, it's hard to believe that he would object -- he's the last one to take a high moral stance. It's up to the supporting cast to give the film whatever limited stature it has. Rod Steiger has some ferociously effective scenes as Stanley [some might think he's merely showing off]; Wendell Corey underplays beautifully as the slimy Smily; Everett Sloane is as solid as ever as Charles' agent; and Paul Langton has a beautifully and powerfully delivered speech to Castle at the end of the film that is one of the most memorable bits in the movie. As for the women, Ilka Chase offers a dead-on portrait of an oily, if stereotypical, gossip columnist, Shelley Winters is so-so as Dixie, and Jean Hagen fails to impress as Buddy's sluttish wife, Connie. Wesley Addy has a nice turn as the writer Hank Teagle. Oddly, a confrontation between Dixie and Hoff that might have been quite cinematic and dynamic is mentioned but not shown, but the film isn't "opened" up very much. It's hard to like or enjoy a movie in which virtually every character is either unpleasant or annoying. Robert Aldrich was the wrong director for this, as well. For a worthwhile Odets adaptation, see Clash By Night.
Verdict: A fairly embarrassing mess of Hollywood pseudo-profundity with horribly miscast leads. **.
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| Alone in the dark with a killer |
Blind Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) is unaware that some men who have come to her apartment pretending to either be friends of her husband or police officers are actually crooks looking for a drug-filled doll that a woman handed off to Susy's unsuspecting husband, Sam (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). Gradually she realizes that something is wrong, and prepares to fight for her life when the gentlemen come back from a wild goose chase she's sent them on. The main trouble with Wait Until Dark -- which was based on a stage play by Frederick Knott (Dial M for Murder) -- is that the suspense is minimal because the audience is clued in to what's going on from the very beginning. Hepburn gives a very good performance and the rest of the surprisingly C List cast are fine, although Alan Arkin seems about as threatening as Boris Badenov. Julie Herrod is excellent as the neighbor child Gloria who is alternately helpful and bratty. Henry Mancini's score does what it can to increase the limited excitement. It's hard to figure why Arkin and Crenna were billed above the title along with Hepburn.
SPOILER ALERT: Susy has been encouraged by her husband to be as independent as possible despite her blindness, which leads to two problematical developments. We already know she can walk by herself to her husband's office, so instead of barricading herself in her apartment, why doesn't she just leave and ask for someone to help her get to the nearest precinct? [St. Luke's Place where this takes place runs right into Seventh Avenue and the men watching her place have gone off on the wild goose chase.] At the very end when Sam sees her bloodied and huddled by the refrigerator, he waits for her to get up and make her way towards him, but surely in a situation like this he would forget his independence edict and go hug the woman he's supposed to be in love with after such an ordeal? Also, in a moment that made some nervous nellies in the audience jump in fright, Alan Arkin leaps out of the darkness at Susy after he's been stabbed and falls to the ground unconscious. Maybe he might have been able to painfully lurch after her, but leap? The moment is ludicrous instead of startling.
Verdict: If you want to see a better Frederick Knott adaptation watch Dial M for Murder instead. **.
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| Gary Cole as Jeffrey MacDonald |
FATAL VISION (1984 telefilm/mini-series). Director: David Greene. Screenplay by John Gay from Joe McGinniss' book.
"They'll never come to know the beauty and wonder of the world." -- Mildred speaking of her late grandchildren.
In 1970 the Green Beret doctor, Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, made a frantic call to police claiming that four people invaded his home and slaughtered his family -- his wife and two little girls -- and left him with minor injuries. At first his wife's parents, Freddy (Karl Malden) and Mildred (Eva Marie Saint), are supportive of Jeffrey and furious that the Army suspects him of the murders, but later they learn that his story of intruders just doesn't hold up and is indeed contradicted by forensics. Leads about the alleged intruders go nowhere. Freddy sees Jeffrey on television saying things that he knows are not true, such as how he required surgery due to his injuries that night. Eventually Freddy becomes his former son-in-law's greatest nemesis, refusing to let the matter drop and dogging prosecutors until they put MacDonald on trial. Cole is a little too boyish at times, but he gives a fine performance as MacDonald, matched by an excellent Malden and Saint. Also notable are Barry Newman as MacDonald's lawyer, Andy Griffith as a prosecutor, and Mitch Ryan as a forensic pathologist. Gripping throughout its three hour running time. There are still those who insist MacDonald is innocent.
Verdict: Memorable television on a horrific true case. ***1/2.
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| Robert clacks away at that keyboard |
"You can do anything that you want as long as you don't call it what it is."
Robert (Peter Sarsgaard), a struggling screenwriter, is inexplicably offered a million dollars for his script called The Dying Gaul, even though the producer, Jeffrey (Campbell Scott), thinks he should rewrite the gay lead characters as a straight couple. Robert takes the money, and doesn't exactly put up much resistance when the closeted "bisexual" Jeffrey comes on to him. Before long the two have entered into an affair behind the back of Jeffrey's wife, Elaine (Patricia Clarkson of Carrie). Elaine, intrigued by Robert, enters a gay web site to chat with him, and then creates a phony identity with which to send him texts and emails, pretending to be his dead lover. Then things get even more warped ... The Dying Gaul has a lot of problems, not the least of which is that Hitchcock himself would have trouble wringing drama out of a movie in which characters seem to spend most of the time clacking away at their keyboards; in fact the movie becomes tedious after awhile. However, the three leads all give good performances, although Sarsgaard's [Blue Jasmine] stereotypical "queeniness" seems to come and go like a bad accent. One scene when he starts crying when he and Jeffrey are having sex borders on camp. An even bigger problem with the movie is that these are not likable people, and the ending makes one of them, no matter how justifiably angry, seem almost psychotic. Lucas could have taken this premise, as contrived as it is, and said something about a lot of things, but this muddled movie doesn't really seem to be saying anything about anything. On the stage, this may have worked, but presented all too literally on the screen it just doesn't.
Verdict: There are times when this almost seems homophobic! **.
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| Judi Dench and Steve Coogan |
Martin Sixsmith authored a book entitled "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee," which was basically a biography of that child, a gay Republican (who was questioning some of his notions) who died of AIDS named Michael Hess. Hess becomes almost a mere footnote in the film version of the book, in which the main characters become his mother, Philomena (Judi Dench) and Sixsmith himself (Steve Coogan), who has just lost his job with the BBC and needs a new story immediately so he can get back in the game. He encounters an old woman named Philomena, who gave up her child to nuns many years ago and wonders what became of him and if he is still alive. In the mostly fictionalized movie, Sixsmith accompanies Philomena to the United States (a trip she actually never took) to find out what they can about her son so Sixsmith can write about it for the magazine footing the bill. Philomena has old-fashioned notions about gay men, supposedly knowing the very young boy was gay simply because he was "sensitive" and saying "maybe he played the harp -- he was gay, y'know." The movie certainly lets the Catholic Church off the hook when it comes to their antediluvian attitudes toward homosexuality. Frankly a story about Hess and the conflicts he endured would have made a much more interesting movie, and it's almost insulting that his story takes a back seat to the travails of his mother. Oddly, the producers apparently thought a movie about an 80-year-old woman would be more box office than one about a young gay man! That being said, the movie is absorbing enough for most of its length, but becomes less so when she learns about her son. Dench and Coogan give very good performances.
Verdict: Not what it could have been, and rather annoying at times. **1/2.
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| Mary Astor and Kenneth MacKenna |
"It isn't wise to love anything so much that to lose it almost kills you."
Struggling novelist Freddie Williston (Kenneth MacKenna) meets May (Mary Astor) in the crowd during the Armistice Day celebration, and discovers that she's just bought a copy of his book. Before long they are married and a child is on the way, along with a string of bestsellers. Had Those We Love looked at the life of an unsuccessful or fair-to-middling author it might have had more dramatic heft, but once Freddie becomes a rich and famous author, the only complication that can be thrown into the couple's lives comes in the form of Valerie (Lilyan Tashman), a married vamp who has set her cap for Freddie. May jumps to conclusions about Val's relationship with her husband, and inadvertently makes matters worse. Will this family survive this crisis, and will Valerie go on her merry way? Those We Love manages to be entertaining because of the cast. Mary Astor is as wonderful as ever, while MacKenna has charm to spare. Tommy Conlon [The Sign of the Cross] is swell as their son, Ricky, who might be as wise as both of his parents. Virginia Sale [Lovin' the Ladies] scores as the maid Bertha, as does Tashman [One Heavenly Night] as the lynx-like (if not terribly beautiful) man-stealer, Valerie. From the first Freddie seems more interested in making money than in crafting lasting literature, so one can imagine his books are as superficial as he is. Those We Love misses virtually every opportunity to say anything about the writing life, the publishing business, or the creative process, and was adapted from a Broadway play. Florey directed The Beast with Five Fingers and many, many others.
Verdict: Fairly creaky, but the acting puts it over. **1/2.
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| Kevin Spacey as Congressman Francis Underwood |
HOUSE OF CARDS (2013 Internet series). Season One. Various directors.
In this re-imagining of the British mini-series, House of Cards (and its two sequels), Francis Urquhart, who becomes prime minister, is replaced by Francis (Frank) Underwood, a Washington congressman who hopes to become vice president and who plots, schemes and murders to achieve his goals. His wife, Claire (Robin Wright of Message in a Bottle), is similarly ruthless in her dealings and is not afraid to go up against her husband when she needs to. The biggest problem with this American version is that the British series' main thrust -- that Urquhart applies the murderous ruthlessness of olde English politics to modern times -- is completely lost, and what you're left with is a fairly typical look at Washington wheeling and dealing with a rather sociopathic lead character. House of Cards takes thirteen episodes to wrap up its first story arc, whereas the original took four, and therefore was more concise, tense and to the point. Whereas Urquhart, as portrayed by the magnificent Ian Richardson, was an almost mythic force of evil, Underwood is more human; Kevin Spacey (Swmming with Sharks) is quite good, but he can't compare to Richardson. A lot of changes have been made due to the change of country and locale, but some things remain: the young female reporter (Kate Mara) who enters into a professional and sexual relationship with Underwood; and the coke and booze-guzzling fellow (Corey Stoll) who is cruelly used by Underwood when the latter backs the former's attempts to become governor [this character was actually a publicity man in the original]. Urquhart's wife didn't appear much or have much to do until the final episodes of the British series, but in this she's front and center from the first. Initially Claire seems like a much warmer person than her husband, but when she has a colleague fire eighteen employees, and then fires her immediately afterward [instead of firing all nineteen of them herself[ you get the sense that something's rotten in this gal as well. The acting is first-rate throughout, and I was particularly impressed by Al Sapienza as a union leader, Constance Zimmer as a reporter, and Gerald McRaney as a billionaire nuclear power plant guy. The sex scenes between Spacey and Kate Mara are kind of gross because Mara generally looks like she's twelve years old. Episode 8 [scripted by Beau Willimon] hints at some homoerotic hanky panky engaged in by Underwood in military school, but it seems dragged in, and somewhat homophobic, as if homosexuality is something you grow out of. If the character is gay or bisexual it isn't explored in the first season.
Verdict: Whatever its flaws, this is undeniably compelling and very well acted. ***.
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| George Sanders and Linda Darnell |
Based on Anton Chekhov's novel "The Shooting Party" this features George Sanders as a Russian judge and Linda Darnell as a Russian peasant! Despite this miscasting, the two actors play well together in the story of Fedor Petroff (Sanders), who neglects his fiancee, Nadena (Anna Lee), after he meets the beautiful Olga (Darnell), whom he knows is "beneath" him but whom he must possess come hell or highwater. An added complication is Olga's unhappy marriage to Anton (Hugo Haas), whose tragedy this chiefly becomes. Darnell is fine, and Sanders offers his usual good performance, but this is an actor whose forte is coolness, not passion, so he never really gets across his passionate feelings for Olga nor anything else. Haas, who also directed such "B" movies as One Girl's Confession, arguably offers the best performance as the likable but tormented Anton. Edward Everett Horton [Lady on a Train] is as good and as much fun as ever, although he, too, seems highly miscast as a womanizing nobleman of ill repute. Anna Lee [The Crimson Kimono] and Laurie Lane as the maid Clara both make a good impression. The whole sordid business comes to a very satisfactory conclusion, although the ultimate fate of one unhappy character is never disclosed.
Verdict: Intriguing romantic drama with interesting cast. ***.
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| Joan Crawford as Harriet Craig |
"I don't like trains. I don't like the feeling of being rushed along in the darkness. Having no control. Having my life completely in someone else's hands" -- Harriet Craig.
This remake of Craig's Wife is actually the third film version of George Kelly's play, which was first made as a silent. In this loose adaptation, Joan Crawford plays Harriet Craig, who likes order and neatness and everything in its place, including her husband, Walter (Wendell Corey of The Big Knife). She and her mother were abandoned by her father, and she needs to be in total control of her life and everyone else's, including her niece, Clare's (K. T. Stevens), who has lived with her and Walter for many years, and whose relationship with Wes (William Bishop of It's a Great Life) she tries to destroy. This version eliminates the character of Walter's aunt, and provides an even stronger motive for Walter's walking out on his wife. Crawford and Corey give very good performances, and the supporting cast, including Lucile Watson, Stevens, Ellen Corby, and Viola Roache, is notable.
Verdict: Crawford in dragon lady mode. ***.